G.K. Chesterton
In the 1790s, the once-great Polish Commonwealth had been carved up by the neighboring empires of Prussia, Austria, and Russia. But, in spite of the long century of repression that followed – a time when Siberia was known as the "Polish Golgotha" – the Poles' chivalric spirit and love of their homeland survived. In the 1920s, shortly after the victory of the newly independent Republic of Poland over Lenin's expansionist Soviet Union, G.K. Chesterton himself travelled to the country. And, filled as ever with the joy of discovering truths at the bottom of apparent paradoxes, he found poetry in their cavalry.

Marion GablNow largely forgotten, Karl Kraus was one of the most incisive and provocative cultural commentators of early twentieth-century Vienna. He's also a literary hero of Jonathan Franzen, one of the most successful American novelists active today. In his ambitious latest book, Franzen sets out to recover the forgotten Kraus for contemporary readers. But his interest isn't simply historical: he also hopes to show that Kraus has a cure for the problems of our postmodern condition. Does he succeed? Marion Gabl reviews the effort.

Wendell Berry
Inevitably, says farmer-poet Wendell Berry, we come to inhabit two worlds: the one that actually is, and the one we imagine. Navigating between them isn't easy – not least because, in nearly every one of us today, "two minds" are at war with each other over the privilege of steering our course.

Rémi BragueToday's West is concerned with 'sustainability' almost to the point of obsession: of resources, of companies, of cars, of vacations. But Europe, argues one of its leading thinkers, finds itself in the middle of a centuries-old experiment that puts the sustainability of not only its own existence but that of all mankind on the line. How did we get here? And do we have the metaphysical goods to get ourselves out? Read more...

Jonathan D. PricePlato’s thoughts on love in the Symposium are shared over wine; Jesus offers eternal life together with the Source of All in the drink. In this new column, Executive Editor Jonathan D. Price will review wines for the prospective drinker: What should I pay? How long should I wait? Is there any accounting for taste? As he does so, he will also encourage the reader to develop a phronema for the proper enjoyment of wine: not as a mere sensory thrill, but as a gateway to contemplation of the sublime.

Jonathan D. PriceThe first wine to be subjected to the exacting palate of Executive Editor J.D. Price is a 2010 Château Talbot. Here you'll find insights (and in-scents) into the character of this admirable Bordeaux, which emerged for a 35-hour tryst in a chilly autumn in Warsaw after four years of patient anticipation, as well as tips on when best to enjoy.

Russell KirkToo often, childhood hopes give way to adult complacency; but, just as often, "men and women are haunted by such nagging questions as 'What is this all about?' or 'Is life worth living?'" In this Epilogue to his remarkable third-person autobiography, Russell Kirk looks back on a long life of literary conflict and reflects on just what it might all be about.

Rev. John J. BombaroIn the first three parts of this series, Rev. Bombaro discussed the theocentric metaphysics, the aesthetics, and the Scholastic philosophical heritage of Jonathan Edwards, colonial intellectual and revivalist preacher. Here, in the final installment, Bombaro shows how Edwards's notions of 'excellency', idealism, and law-like relational dispositions work together to make manifest the glory of God.

Arnaud ZimmernDante's imagery in the Inferno is haunting. But, for all the care he took in crafting his canti, recent scholarship has revealed errors of scale and proportion in his descriptions of the infernal environs. Was he just a lousy arithmetician? Was he deliberately undermining his narrative with a bit of ironic miscalculation? Or are Dante's apparent mistakes in fact occasions for him to explore a fundamental question about man's redemption?

Wendell Berry
The legions of health-food shoppers and the interminable discussions of sustainability bear witness to what is by now a well-established feature of our cultural landscape: the organic movement. But Wendell Berry, one of the most influential champions of the cause, turns his pen (and his plow) against the seductive idea that what is properly a way of being can be re-branded and shrink-wrapped into a movement.